Are we on the verge of instant-messaging and SMS applications becoming commodity products? That's the case if Clickatell ends up succeeding with a white-label SMS client.

Today Clickatell released Messenger-LITE, a desktop SMS product designed for businesses and web sites wanting to resell SMS to their clients. The idea behind Clickatell is simple: it can be branded (skinned) by resellers to look like their own product.

According to Danie du Toit, Clickatell marketing director, the product has already been adopted by many of Clickatells distribution partners: "The reason that we believe in the product is the ease of use with which it can be rolled out. Resellers can have it as a downloadable file from their site, and corporate clients can distribute it internally and externally, complete with their own branding."

The whole purpose of a white-label product is to allow businesses and Web sites to produce revenues from customers, which means that an SMS system must be integrated with a billing system. Messenger-LITE works with Clickatells SMS voucher system, which in turn can be integrated with client billing systems. Corporate clients can also generate vouchers in seconds from primary accounts and use them as a means of controlling message volumes. Central account management by administrators further allows for strict control and extensive reporting, empowering the business with a tool which is sure to save cost in the short- and long term, as it can dramatically reduce communication cost to mobile phones locally and globally, being only a fraction of the cost of a voice call.